A study published in the British journal "The BMJ" showed that epidural anesthesia, also known as "spinal anesthesia," during childbirth does not increase the risk of serious complications in newborns.
During the study, researchers analyzed data from 495,695 births in Scotland between 2007 and 2019, in which about a quarter of the women underwent this type of anesthesia. Scientists assessed the risks of several factors, including: serious neurological injuries in infants, sepsis (blood poisoning), acute respiratory distress, a low Apgar score in the first five minutes, death within the first 28 days of life, and a diagnosis of cerebral palsy in later years.
The results showed that serious neurological complications were extremely rare in newborns, occurring in fewer than one in every thousand births, and epidural anesthesia was not associated with an increased risk of any of the adverse outcomes studied in newborns, including brain damage, serious illness, sepsis, death, or cerebral palsy.
The researchers confirmed that the huge sample size of nearly half a million births, along with the long follow-up of the children, made it possible to reach this conclusive result, and concluded that epidural anesthesia is a safe way to relieve labor pains, and can be used without any concern about its effect on the health of the fetus or child in the future.
An epidural is an injection of anesthetic into a small space in the lower back to block pain in the lower half of the body. This type of anesthesia is widely used today to relieve childbirth pain or to soothe pain after abdominal and leg surgeries.
